Kemono (Japanese 獣, ケモノ, or けもの "beast") is a genre of Japanese art and character design that prominently features fictional anthropomorphic or sentient animal characters in human-like settings and situations. It is used widely in drawing, painting, manga, anime, and video game designs, many of which are popular in the rest of the world.

Human-like animal characters are called Jūjin (Japanese 獣人 or じゅうじん "therianthrope"; alternatively, these characters are also sometimes read as kemonobito "beast-human").

Their unique design differs from artist to artist, but in general they combine popular character design with animal traits deemed cute and endearing. However, most kemono character designs retain a fundamentally human personality, seldom acting like the real animals after which they are designed.

As such, kemono are usually shown living the way normal humans live in the same setting: speaking normal language, wearing normal clothes, eating normal food, living in normal homes, in ways that blur their distinction from ordinary humans.

Currently, kemono art is often distributed through Japanese fanzine circles, "doujinshi." Fans of kemono are called kemona or kemoners (ケモナー kemonā), from kemono and English -er.

There is also kemono which depicts young animals, much like cub art: kemololi (female cub) / kemoshota (male cub).

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Though based on very different cultural ideals, kemono and furry fandom on the Internet can occasionally overlap, both geographically and in influence. Some kemono artists appeal to both at the same time.

Due to similarity in subject matter, people interested in kemono art are also frequently interested in furry art (and vice versa.)

In early 2010, Kemonochan was created as an image board for English-speaking users who are fans of kemono artwork, but it closed in 2014, leaving VeeBooru and WildCritters as the main English-speaking boards for such work.

There are small scale, local furmeets and large-scale, regular conventions catering to kemono fans.

Kemono events are mainly divided into two types, fursuit events and doujin/fanzine vending events. But this is not absolute: Fullmoff also have booths for creators, and Kemoket have spaces for fursuiting, so it's not possible to simply divide into two types.

Kemono is most easily encountered outside of Japan in Anime, Manga, and Video games. Below is a selected list of popular and obscure anime that are primarily Kemono/furry (see Anime for a more complete list).

(This is a brief list of well-distinguished kemono websites on the Internet. These websites are all link-free or have been irrevocably permitted to be linked to by their webmasters. Most of the sites are written only in Japanese, and some may contain themes perceived as mildly adult in nature. Most Kemono sites will provide links to other artist's sites as well. For more, see Category:Kemono)